Liquid Lip Smacker

Liquid Lip Smacker submerged onto the scene in 2003, 30 years after the original Bonne Bell Lip Smackers first hit the market in 1973. Bonne Bell gave the world a new way to get lips smackin’ with a liquified, glossier version of their global icon. A new crystalline sheen in tiny but mighty tubes packed the biggest and best flavors you could only expect from a Bonne Bell Lip Smacker. 

Although there were many unforgettable liquid glosses under the Smackers name before this, none were poised as being the liquified version of the OG that started it all. Bonne Bell went full throttle with the promotions for Liquid Lip Smacker including many print ads and even a TV commercial that came a few years later. Remember that? I even recall Walmart carrying special edition Liquid Lip Smacker trios for a promotion but they only came with the regular core flavors. 

The Original Six

 

The millennium was a brand new world obsessed with having everything mini and more compact; low rise jeans, eye brows, flat-ironed hair, CD's/DVD's and shrinking hand-held electronic devices were pretty prevalent and Liquid Lip Smackers were no exception. The mini pocket-sized Smackers were tiny enough to fit a few in your pocket and couldn’t have been more opposite of the .60 oz. jumbo-sized Lip Smackers that started it all three whole decades before them in 1973. A sign of the times so they say. 

Liquid Lip Smacker & Splash 'n Shine counter display rendering

Liquid Lip Smacker debuted in 6 smackin’ sensations that were staples in the regular line. The formula drenched lips in a shiny saturated infusion of Vitamin E, Aloe and Coconut Oil for the ultimate lip loving nourishment. The texture felt comfortably cushy on the lips as was the plush sponge-on applicator tip to sweep across your lips. The bright translucent caps were striking and resembled the beam of Christmas lights when light caught them. 

Strawberry 

Strawberry Kiwi 

Watermelon 

Cotton Candy 

Sugar Crystals 

Vanilla 

Each flavor was a new take on their solid Smacker counterparts although Strawberry Kiwi was identical in the best way possible.

Strawberry- Similar to the rich and juicy Merry Strawberry from Holiday 2001.

Strawberry Kiwi- The iconic Strawberry Kiwi Comet liquified sans the Cosmic shimmer.

Watermelon- A new BB watermelon wonder, this always reminded me of Watermelon Bubblelicious. 

Cotton Candy- An interesting new take on the spun sugar sensation. This was not a sweet cotton candy but a fruity blue raspberry-like cotton candy. 

Sugar Crystals- Literally Moon Rock Candy liquified and a flavor hard to pinpoint.

Vanilla- If you had the Va-Va Vanilla Roll-on Shiner then you knew this flavor was exactly that. A rich, sugary sweet vanilla that I swear had hints of butterscotch. 

Blistered graphics

The blistered cards featured floating flavor graphics being carried in bubbles of flavorous fun that would later serve as inspiration to the marketing in the 2010's for the brand. One thing I loved about the actual tubes was the graphics were printed directly on the packaging so it was nearly impossible to scratch and disintegrate.

Clipping from an early 2004 magazine article featuring the first tinted formulation 

Before we get too ahead of ourselves, did you know Liquid Lip Smackers had a softly lit milky tint appearance to them when they first launched? It was the same texture and they still went on crystal clear. Only the very first iteration had the tint then soon after all Liquid Lip Smackers had the clear as day formula we all came to know.

Here's the very first tinted Watermelon compared to the later crystal clear formula.

*AD BREAK*

2004 Liquid Lip Smacker print ad featuring the original six flavors.
"The only liquid shine good enough to be called Lip Smacker." 😍

Check out the first ever 2003 debut ad here.

❅🎄❅

We got two of the very first excitingly festive flavors for Holiday 2004. Pink Nilla Mint and Cherry Berry each had matching Splash ‘n Shines that went along with them. 

Holiday 2004:

Pink Nilla Mint

Cherry Berry 

Pink Nilla Mint- Imagine a crystal cool peppermint swirled with the sweetest vanilla. A match made in Heaven. 

Cherry Berry- This gave the frosty flavorous fusion of the darkest cherries, sweetest blackberries and ripest raspberries. 

🫧🫧

Two years after the original debut in 2005 came the first two new flavors to join the permanent line. Bubble Gum and Pink Lemonade which were already well-loved Smackers staples.

2005 Flavor Extensions:

Bubble Gum

Pink Lemonade

Bubble Gum- A super juicy & fruity bubble blasting gum flavor that always reminded me of something between the Tiny Size Chiclets and Big League Chew. 

Pink Lemonade- A tart and tangy fresh-squeezed lemon treat from the Bonne Bell lemonade stand.

🎊🎄🎊

These weren't the only two newbies 2005 had in store! For Holiday 2005, thee one and only Candy Confetti made it's first liquified appearance. A favorite from the Holiday 1999 collection and the Smackersville crew. This was HUGE! 

Holiday 2005:

Candy Confetti

Candy Confetti- This was exactly like the Holiday 1999 beauty! A piñata full of the fruitiest hard candies.

🌞🌞🌞

Come 2007, we got 3 brand new permanent flavors to round out the block logo era. These flavors were exclusive to Walmart the first year but eventually made it to other stores by 2008.

2007 Walmart Exclusive Flavor Extensions:

Strawberry Grapefruit

Pina Colada

Blue Raspberry

Strawberry Grapefruit- BB knows strawberry like no other and mixing it with grapefruit was an incredible idea! This is like a handful of fruit snacks with strawberry and a sweet grapefruit dancing in the front. Mind you this is the first grapefruit Bonne Bell did in the Smackers line since the original 1979 Pink Grapefruit.

Pina Colada- An absolute staple in the BB line-up from the beginning and a vacation for your lips. A dreamy pineapple dancing with a creamy coconut.

Blue Raspberry- First there was Wild, then Red, and with much time and many other raspberries in between came Blue. It first came along as a Squeezy Lip Smacker in 2006 then joined the Liquid Lip Smacker for this special collection. A very sweet take on blue raspberry and not as sharp or tart as other blue raspberries BB did prior to this. 

A glimpse at the Flavor Extensions

A special memory I treasure was actually being able to buy the first Liquid Lip Smackers directly at Bonne Bell from Mrs. Bell's store at their Georgetown Row location in Lakewood. We were visiting in January 2003 and she let myself and a dear friend of mine go to the back to see all the new products that year before they shipped to stores. We went CRAZY! The first two Liquid Lip Smacker flavors I tried were Sugar Crystals and Strawberry Kiwi and bought the rest once they hit stores. 

 

There were so many more flavors in the line in the years to come but I purposefully kept this post limited to their original launch in the block logo and also excluding all the cobranded partners that I’ll post here in time. With so many flavors I do wish Bonne Bell would have went even crazier with them out of the gate, giving us many more flavors and even some 1970's staples with the launch. Can you imagine Jelly Bean, Caramel Corn, Orange Chocolate, Peppermint, Banana Marshmallow...I could go on *sigh*. I would have loved full Liquid Lip Smacker Holiday sets from the jump since they really didn’t come until years after, albeit the small Holiday 2004 & Holiday 2005 additions. There was still a lot of liquid lip lovin’ fun to come after this era. 

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